Ramadan Kareem!

Most restaurants -- but not all -- shut during the day for Ramadan.  The ones that look the least welcoming are actually the most likely to be open!  Here is one example in Masdar City, a futuristic eco-friendly zone near the airport.

Inside, it was bustling....at least by Masdar City standards.

Hatta Fort

 

We are trying to squeeze in UAE travels while the weather is still tolerable.  One of the places on our list for this spring was Hatta, a fort town in the mountainous center of the country.  The climate at Hatta is hot but drier than Abu Dhabi and Dubai, making it a relative summer haven.  

Nearby Hatta Fort is a small complex of a few towers and a main square, now converted into a museum scattered with all-too life-like soldiers.

We stayed at a charming hotel, open since 1981 (an eternity by UAE standards).  Hatta Fort Hotel lacks the sheen of modern UAE architecture, and we didn't miss the glitz one bit. It is an unofficial gathering spot for the Dubai Harley Davidson club. The 100+ degree weather didn't deter the bikers from parking their bikes in the sun and striding about in their leather pants.

The hotel has an endearing medley of attractions: a putt-putt course, where the "greens" are cement (the ball never stops rolling!), rabbits in a rabbit house, goats, ducks, and several loquacious peacocks.

Even though it is spring here, it is still quite warm.  We walked up to the hotel's observation point. Despite our considerable sweat, no one will be impressed with our ascent.

 

Photos from a weekend in the desert

Food Truck Festival

Every year, Abu Dhabi has a food festival. This usually entails fancy chefs from around the world doubling their prices, and sending their underlings for a series of demos and shows. This year, a somewhat more interesting concept popped up: a food truck festival.  

Interesting, if only because Abu Dhabi only recently got its first food truck, which had been heavily featured the week before at an Emirati food festival, where our friend Julien famously ordered himself some food.

How to host a food truck festival without food trucks? Never fear. In Abu Dhabi, solutions to such piddling problems come (too) easily. Intrepid event planners brought in food trucks from around the world for a three week tour of its cities.  Trucks, staff, supplies, owners, and all.

The most exciting place we tried was a London truck selling "Bracos," i.e. British tacos, little bites with grilled halloumi, blackberry salsa, and slaw.  

It didn't touch the greatest food truck, but it did hit the spot. 

As night fell, and the festival's lights began to glow, we couldn't help but think of Lake Merritt....another beautiful spot, where food truck festivals make slightly better sense.

The Bridge to Nowhere

Abu Dhabi is short on tracks. Abu Dhabi Striders, the local running group, often does its speed session in parking lots (last Sunday night, at least two people were felled by curbs). There's the formula 1 track, open most Tuesday nights for runners and bikers. If it's not Tuesday or Sunday, there's always a good old standby right out our front door, the Corniche.

And then there's the bridge to nowhere. Until recently, though, we stopped when we got to nowhere -- the island on the other side of the bridge. 

Big mistake. 

It turns out that nowhere is a really lovely place to be. 

The sand is firm enough for running, homicidal Ferraris are scarce, the scrub is lovely, and the views -- they are sensational. 

The birds love the island, too. 

 Including these distant flamingos.

And (Nick promises it's true) sometimes dolphins, too.

Liwa desert camping

Go a little past the town of Madinat Zayed, past the last homely house, and you'll be in dune country. 

We followed our (more intrepid) friends there this weekend, driving into the desert in search of a quiet, empty place to camp. Steerforth was game.

Nick was pretty game, too. 

With significant coaching, he made it up to our campsite....

...on the third...

...or fourth try.

We didn't count too carefully. 

Relieved, we set up our tents (check out our fancy green sand tent!), and discovered that we had the dunes to ourselves.



Liwa is tremendous. Alone in the dunes, a few hundred meters away from our campsite, the desert was ours, and it was empty. We lay in the sand as it cooled down, and watched sun set and the stars pop out of the sky.

We've never seen so many. 

Happy National Day (43rd edition)

It seems like it was only yesterday that the UAE turned 42.  This year, we enjoyed National Day abroad, but still had plenty of time to take in the lavish decorations.

On the way to the airport very early (or very late, depending on one's schedule) on National Day, two Emiratis pulled up to us and asked, "it is our National Day -- are you happy?"  We said yes -- but didn't tell them it was partly because we were about to escape the impending madness.

Iftar

Iftar is the break-fast meal eaten once the sun goes down during Ramadan.  It is most common to break fast at home, but it's also popular to have iftar at tents which hotels set up.  We have been eyeing the gigantic tent that Emirates Palace since it was put up, and this week Nick had a chance to file a report from the inside.

It seems the experts will load up a plate before the call to prayer in order to avoid the rush.  There is more than enough food to feed the fasters and non-fasters alike.  Most people who fast during Ramadan have their own strategy for breaking fast, but it always involves one or three dates (never two!) and some liquid.  Unlike most menus in Abu Dhabi the food was primarily traditional Emirati dishes, with a few Egyptian ones thrown in.

But more impressive than the food was the venue -- all of this happened in a tent!

Emirates National Auto Museum

Yes, that is a really big truck!  

On our way back from Liwa, we stopped at the Emirates National Auto Museum, a collection of cars owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, known as the rainbow sheikh.  He deserves the name: among the many colorful cars in his collection are Mercedes in every color of the rainbow -- the leather seats, the steering wheel, and even the dashboard match the exterior of the car.

There was a interesting mix of sports cars, 1980s saloons, antique cars, and even some not-cars.  Here is a 19th century Mercedes bicycle (with a semi in the background):

A Star Wars scene pained on the side of a van:

And a reminder of home that we weren't dying to see:

But the highlight was the truck -- the cab and bed of the truck house a fully-loaded apartment, with kitchen, multiple bedrooms and a movie room.

The Sheikh was such a good customer that Dodge made a small version of the truck for his young son.

There were a couple of odd vehicles parked outside the museum: an RV in the shape of a globe, and the largest two-wheel camper in the word (certified by Guinness!).  We didn't stop and linger too long at these, as it was almost 120 degrees outside!